A driver assistance system on board a motor vehicle is configured for relieving a driver of the task of driving the motor vehicle. A signal may be output to the driver in order to control the movement of the motor vehicle in a predefined sense, or a direct intervention may be made into the motion control of the motor vehicle. For example, a parking assistant may assist the driver during parking in a parking space by scanning the surroundings of the motor vehicle and notifying the driver of obstacles. The parking assistant may also operate in a semiautomatic manner, in which, for example, a steering angle is automatically determined and set, while the speed is controlled by the driver. If the parking assistant is operated fully automatically, the parking operation may proceed completely without involvement of the driver.
Other examples of driver assistance systems include a braking assistant, a distance alert, a lane-keeping assistant, or traffic sign recognition. The driver assistance systems share the common feature that they process pieces of information that are scanned from the surroundings of the motor vehicle. To keep the scanning of the surroundings and the processing of the sensor signals preferably universal, it is customary to carry out the processing in so-called layers. Each layer makes use of the results of the next lower level. In the first level, the surroundings of the motor vehicle are scanned with the aid of one or multiple sensors. A surroundings model for the motor vehicle is created in a second layer, based on the sensor signals. A situation analysis takes place in a third layer. A function is determined in a fourth layer, and a signal is output to the driver or an intervention is made into the steering of the motor vehicle in a fifth layer.
A disadvantage of the conventional procedure is that the processing of data must be carried out on a low layer without knowing the exact requirements of the higher layers. For example, a parking assistant may require higher resolution of distances from surrounding obstacles, while a measuring rate is of secondary importance. In contrast, a braking assistant may require a high measuring rate, and distances from surrounding obstacles may possibly not have to be determined as accurately.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved situation analysis in order to form an improved starting point for a downstream driver assistance function.